BOCES New Visions program opens doors to careers, teen writes

Submitted photoMarie Gravius works with pupils at Headstart in Auburn when she was a New Visions student.

Marie Gravius graduated in June from Jordan-Elbridge High School. Now a freshman at Cayuga Community College, she wrote the following essay about a program open to high school students.

Perfect attendance

Marie Gravius holds the record for most days of school without being absent at Jordan-Elbridge. When she graduated in June, she hadn't missed a day since the 4th grade. Post-Standard columnist Sean Kirst wrote about Gravius and her determination. Read his column

In the small community of Jordan-Elbridge, only a handful of students in the graduating class of 2008 really knew what they wanted to do once graduation day rolled around.

Thanks to the OCM-BOCES New Visions program, I was one of those people. The New Visions slogan is "Think outside the box" and through their medical, legal, and teacher education career training courses it helps students do just that.

I had always thought I might enjoy teaching, but wasn't absolutely sure that it was the career path for me. I thought I knew what was involved in teaching, but the New Visions program helped me see it was more than just talking to the students. I was able to appreciate the time and detail work that goes into the teaching of students of several age groups. Within this program, I was allowed to teach at every grade level to see which I preferred the most.

Marie Gravius

After deciding that I definitely wanted to become a teacher, I thought that second grade was the level for me. I had a lesson plan that ended up being completely disastrous, and I could tell the students knew that it wasn't great. There were definitely varying amounts of emotions throughout the classroom during my lesson. It was after this experience that I decided that I wanted to teach kindergarten.

While I may have missed out on all of the "senioritis," pranks and "Senior skip day," I gained a valuable experience that has helped to shape and solidify my idea of my future.

I am writing this both as a student who went through it, and as a strong supporter of it. The New Visions program was definitely a step in the right direction and worth missing some of the high school senior year experiences. Being out of my high school, and receiving "real-world" experiences through this amazing program has helped me in countless ways.